Wat Chaimongkol Community receives larger office

The Wat Chaimongkol Community became the latest Pattaya neighborhood to receive a new community office, this one complete with massage services.

Nine monks from the Chaimongkol Temple blessed the new building, which replaces an older, smaller structure that obscured views on the temple grounds. Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, Mike Group head Surat Mekavarakul, and City Councilman Banthun Prayukt attended the informal Feb. 4 ceremony. The date of the office’s official opening has not been set.

Nearly all of the 1.2 million baht facility was funded out of the pocket of Chaimongkol Abbot Punya Rattanaporn. About 200,000 baht came from donations. Thongmuan Changhai will be the community office’s president.

Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome and city councilors present a Phra Khru Vibun Dhammakit image to Punya Rattanaporn, abbot of Wat Chaimongkol Royal Temple inside the new community office.

Located next to the parking lot, the new office is more spacious and out of the way of religious buildings. It also will offer massage services for the general public. The funds will go toward operating expenses for the community office.

This article was published in the Pattaya Mail newspaper on Friday February 14, 2014 (Vol. XXII No. 7).